Throwback Thursday: Renault 5 Turbo

Welcome to Thursday and salutations to another new weekly feature: Throwback Thursday. The premise is simple. If a car's got airbags, ABS, traction control or any other life-saving gubbins, it's not welcome here.

With this in mind, we're kicking the series off with one of the lairiest cars the 1980s had to offer: introducing the wide-body predecessor to the Clio V6, the audacious Renault 5 Turbo.

Image source: onlycarsandcars.blogspot.com

Powered by a relatively puny, mid-mounted 1.4-litre turbocharged four-pot, the 5 Turbo thumped out 158bhp and 163lb ft of torque. Not a lot, admittedly, by today's standards, but with a kerb weight of 970kg, the Turbo was a balls out, rear-wheel drive pocket rocket. In fact, its modest power was enough to catapult the R5 to a top speed of 130mph, after having thrashed its way to 62mph in 6.6 seconds.

Built for homologation in Group 4 rallying (precursor to the no holds barred Group B rally), a total of 3576 R5 Turbos were produced between 1980 and 1984.

On its maiden rally voyage, the R5 was piloted to victory at the hands of rally legend Jean Ragnotti at the 49ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo.

Image source: onlycarsandcars.blogspot.com

After production of the original 400 homoligation models (Turbo 1), Renault released the lower-priced Turbo 2. Using more components from the Renault 5 parts bin, it was cheaper to produce but almost as fast: 62mph came up in 6.6 seconds and flat out, it would hit 124mph.

Thanks to the 5's short wheelbase (2430mm), squat dimensions, rear-wheel drive and lack of driver aids, it really was a car that demanded a driver's full attention at all times; get it wrong in one of these and you didn't have bags of toxic air or brakes that did the hard work for you to rely on.

If you want an original R5 T1 or R5 T2 on your driveway, you'll need upwards of £35,000 in your pocket. They're as rare as a Mustang Civic (easy now...) and owners know better than to sell them on.